- Guidelines for postal workers to handle suspicious mail were issued.
- Four suspicious letters addressed to the PM and the chief minister of Punjab were discovered in a Pindi letterbox.
ISLAMABAD: The authorities on Friday discovered ten more suspicious letters, some of which were mixed with “toxic” powder and had menacing words. The letters were written to judges of the higher courts, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.
Of the ten letters that were found on Friday, according to sources, six were written to judges of the Supreme Court, including Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa; one was addressed to Justice Ali Baqar Najafi of the Lahore High Court (LHC); two were sent to Maryam Nawaz; and one was addressed to Mr. Sharif.
The five additional letters that were received by the Supreme Court were written to Justices Munib Akhtar, Irfan Saadat, Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Ayesha A. Malik, and Muhammad Ali Mazhar.
The four other letters were found by the employees of a post office in Dhoke Gujran, a Rawalpindi area, while the one addressed to the LHC judge was received by his personal staff. Nevertheless, no chemicals or powder were discovered within the envelopes that were taken from the post office’s letterbox in Rawalpindi.
Police told Dawn that a police team had arrived at the Supreme Court and taken the suspicious letters into custody pending more legal action, following notification from the court’s personnel regarding their reception.
They said that these letters, along with those addressed to Chief Justice Isa, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, and Justice Aminud Din Khan, were received in the regular mail and forwarded to the judges’ staff at the top court’s Receipt and Issue (R&I) branch on the same day. But on Friday, these packets were unsealed.
After receiving five additional letters, the police officials claimed there was no need to open a new case because it would be covered in a follow-up statement in the FIR that was already filed with the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD).
On the complaint of Mohammad Iqbal, the duty in-charge of the Supreme Court’s R&I branch, a formal complaint was filed, incorporating Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and Section 507 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The National Forensic Science Laboratory, Islamabad, will receive a sample of powder that was taken from each of the five letters, according to the police, for chemical and toxicological testing and analysis.
Welcome to Bacillus anthracis!!!” was written in the letters, along with a picture of a human skull.
Anthrax is an uncommon but dangerous infectious disease that can strike both humans and animals. It is caused by the bacteria Bacillus anthracis.
LHC magistrate
The suspicious letter was received by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, making him the sixth judge of the LHC to do so. A letter was discovered by the senior judge’s staff while going through the daily mail that was received at the high court. The employees did not open the envelope and reported the situation to the police, who seized the letter and gave it to the CTD for review.
Prior to this, threatening letters containing strange powder had been sent to five judges of the LHC: Chief Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmed Khan; Justice Shujaat Ali Khan; Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan; Justice Aalia Neelum; and Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh.
The letters sent to the judges of the LHC contained “carbohydrates having arsenic traces” instead of anthrax or any other deadly material, according to an early assessment conducted by the security and forensic experts. But the supposed dispatcher(s) has not been located by the authorities as of yet.
The Punjab Safe City Authority’s CCTV cameras are being used by security personnel to track down the people who sent the dubious letters. It has been decided by the home department and other agencies that the judges’ staff should have scanners so they may check suspicious letters or envelopes before opening them.
Additionally, the department has made the decision to provide all LHC judges with the training and technology they need to safely handle suspicious letters and articles.
Dubious letters discovered in Rawalpindi
The prime minister, the chief minister of Punjab, and the CJP were the recipients of four suspicious letters that were discovered in a letterbox outside the Dhoke Gujran post office of the Naseerabad Police Station in Rawalpindi.
The sources claim that on Thursday night, staff members had opened the letter box in accordance with standard procedure to retrieve mail. The envelopes had no return address or sender identification on them.
According to a senior police officer, when post office employees discovered strange letters, they followed protocol and notified higher officials within the postal agency. Subsequently, experts visited the location and examined the letters.
He claimed that the letter included a newspaper clipping that had a call to do away with the Food Authority. “It was all fake news, nothing serious,” he declared.
Later, the post office manager admitted to the police that he had no idea who had placed these envelopes in the letter box or when. He informed the police that the staff was only made aware of it after they had gone through the letters.
Postal workers’ guidelines
On Friday, the Director General of Pakistan Post’s office gave guidelines to its employees about how to handle mail sent to well-known individuals.
Following the suspected letters being delivered to the higher judiciary, the office instructed all postmasters general to distribute an alert to all offices nationwide, advising them to exercise caution and vigilance while handling mail sent to prominent offices.
Furthermore, it emphasized that the primary duty and top priority is the safety and security of the postal operating staff.
Additionally, the office issued instructions stating that the personnel handling mail should be given all necessary supplies (gloves, masks, etc.) and that the mail brought into post offices after letter boxes have been cleared should be handled with care.
Any suspicious or unattended material found in mail articles should be reported right away to the local administration, the head of the unit in question, and the supervisor who is on duty.
When scheduling, sorting, sending, and delivering mail, employees stationed at counters and delivery post offices should also be instructed to exercise caution, the statement stated.
It stated that letters addressed to diplomats, justices of the Supreme Court, high courts, and other prominent figures should be thoroughly inspected and delivered to the appropriate office’s R&I division.
The postmasters general in Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Hyderabad, Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, and Muzaffarabad have received the directions.
